Madras High Court upholds speaker's decision to drop disqualification proceedings against 21 AIADMK MLAs

The Madras High Court has upheld the decision of the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker to drop disqualification proceedings against 21 AIADMK MLAs. The MLAs had voted in favour of the TVK government in the assembly, defying a whip issued by their party. A bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said that disqualification does not arise because the AIADMK's general secretary had condoned the violation. The court rejected the petitioner's contention that the disqualification petition should be independently considered despite the condonation. Advocate P V Selvakumar, who filed the petition, had challenged the speaker's decision to drop the proceedings.